Hands-on experience

COMMUNICATION students of the University of the Cordilleras enrolled in the subject Television Production (COM 117) experienced how to be television front liners and staff behind the scene in student-produced newscasts which they will always remember in their college life.

At 2:35 p.m. on the day of production on February 13 and 18, tension was high at the Masscom laboratory. All were busy from make-up artist, cameraman, technical director, news writer, floor director, reporters, news anchors and to news director.

It was a picture similar to a busy television newsroom and studio as the students prepare for the 4:00pm and 5:30pm successive live airing of newscasts seen simultaneously via live feed at the student lounge for wider viewership.

The fourth Estate Newscast program News Director David Balway said the experience was nerve-racking situation at the start to the point that his heart was pounding fast. But it was also an opportunity that taught him lessons which he will forever treasure.

“The actual media experience was something that really left a mark not only in how I perceived media but also on how I deal with people,” Balway said.

Some groups have a successful airing of newscasts but some experienced technical difficulties which usually happen in live programs.

Ariane March Cruz was happy and pressured at the same time after given the task to anchor their newscast entitled “Ratsada”. Although their program was not properly executed as they have hoped to be, the experience was still worth the effort.

“I learned the value of teamwork because I learned to work with people whom I never worked before,” Cruz said.

The production of the live newscasts of the students is in line in the pursuit of providing and imparting them an actual real world media experiences, a hands-on training that will prepare them in facing the real world of media.

What made the newscasts of the students also very significant was the support of Baguio City Tourism Officer Benny Alhambra, Jaycees Baguio Chapter former president Atty. Ronald Perez, and Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) president and Councilor Joel Alangsab who accepted the students’ invitation and appeared as guests in the live interview segment.

Alhambra, Perez, and Alangsab already made the students feel like professional broadcast journalists when they already agreed to guest and the more when they appeared in the studio and readily answered questions like they answer questions from working media.

Earlier NBN Channel 4 Correspondent Jonathan Llanes and ABS CBN Northern Luzon Chief Cameraman Dodie Mendillo shared their knowledge on Television News Reporting and Visuals to guide the students on the content and camera shots needed in producing a newscast.

Technical expert Pepito “Peter Bright” Liwanag who is also a faculty of the Criminal and Justice Department also shared his technical expertise on his speech dubbed “Understanding the technicalities in television production operation”.

We need more people who will support our cause for giving hands-on experience to students as one way of preparing them for the profession. They will surely shine through our guidance and help.

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